agreement. it's not a time to put americans through more stress. >> to the extent that an event like that, as tragic as it is, brings us a little closer together, both in the nation and in washington, that would be a good thing. >> that was house speaker john boehner and white house press secretary jay carney yesterday. both suggesting that last week's horrible school shooting may just help the two sides in washington find some common ground. good morning, i'm brian schactman, this is "way too early." we have a lot of news to talk b including a tough new report saying the state department failed to provide enough security security in bengahzi, first the latest on newtown, connecticut. this morning president obama is expected to announce that vice president joe biden will

spearhead his administration's response to the newtown shooting. the president is not expected to go into detail on policy decisions, but yesterday the white house hinted at what new legislation might look like. >> he is actively supportive of, for example, senator feinstein's stated intent to revive a piece of legislation that would reinstate the assault weapons ban. he supports and would support legislation that addresses the problem of the so-called gun show loophole. and there are other elements of gun legislation that he could support. people talked about high-capacity ammunition clips for example. that's something that certainly he would be interested in looking at. >> the national rifle association has broken its silence issuing a statement reading in part "the nra is

prepared to offer meaningful contributions to make sure this never happens again." the organization has planned what it describes as a major news conference for the end of the week. also some leading retailers are taking action on their own. dick's sporting goods says it is suspending sales of certain military-style weapons in stores across the country. elsewhere two republican governors, rick perry in texas, and bob mcdonnell in virginia, said they would consider allowing school officials to carry firearms on campus. meanwhile it's still a long road ahead in newtown. sandy hook elementary remains a crime scene at this hour and students won't be returning to class at all until january. when they do return, they will be at a former middle school in the town of monroe, about eight miles away at least temporarily. most of the other schools in the district have since reopened with increased police presence and grief counselors on hand.

nbc's anne thompson has more. >> reporter: the reopening of newtown schools, an act of faith and resolve. >> whether you wait a day or a month, whatever, there's no -- there's no rule book. >> reporter: determination quickly tested as a threat to one elementary school forced it into lockdown before students even arrived. the site of the massacre, sandy hook elementary, remained closed. moving vans carrying furniture and equipment left under a police escort headed for the school's new building in neighboring monroe. at newtown's catholic church, two funerals, james mattioli. his favorite classes were math and recess. 6-year-old jessica rekos loved being a big sister to her brothers travis and shane.

>> i stood by the post lantern. >> reporter: four girls and two boys crying and out of breath having come from the school 100 yards away. what did you say to them? >> it's okay. it's okay. come with me. >> reporter: inside the retired psychologist gave them toys and the children started talking. >> the two boys just start crying and saying we can't go back to school. we can't go back to school. mrs. soto, our teacher, we don't have a teacher. we can't go back to school. mrs. soto is dead. >> reporter: steve smith's granddaughter was in vicki soto's class. he went to rosen's house. his heros are the teachers. >> whatever actions they took to divert his attention, they're the ones responsible for her being here with us today. >> nbc's anne thompson reporting for us. there is other news to get to. new developments involving the

deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in bengahzi. an independent report is placing most of the blame on the state department for failing to provide proper security for the compound. the panel concludes that systemic management failures at the state department resulted in "grossly inadequate security at the consulate where four americans, including ambassador chris stevens were killed. the report says the u.s. relied on poorly skilled local militia members to help safeguard the facility and investigators found no evidence that the attack was sparked by an anti-muslim video. the review board made 29 recommendations to improve embassy security and secretary of state hillary clinton has reportedly accepted every single one of them. with the fiscal cliff deadline quickly approaching, the white house is rejecteding house speaker john boehner's so-called plan b proposal outlined yesterday should negotiations break down.

that plan would extend bush era tax cuts for everyone except the top 2% but do nothing to prevent deep spending cuts from taking effect january 1st. nancy pelosi offering her take on what the gop's plan "b" stands for. >> our plan "b" would protect american taxpayers who make $1 million or less, and have all of their current rates extended. i continue to have hope that we can reach a broader agreement with the white house that would reduce spending as well as add revenues on the table. i think it would be better for our country. at this point, having a back-up plan to make sure that as few american tax payers are effected by this increase as possible. >> plan "b" i would call it plan befuddled. it's hard to imagine why they came up with it unless they wanted to prove to members that unless 218 of them were ready to

raise rates it's not going to pass. the democrats will not give them that success. you can be sure of that. it's a tactic, but it's not a serious proposal. >> it's not just the white house that speaker boehner has to con ten with now. there's also a sizable portion of his own party which has no intention of raising taxes. >> once you cross that line and say it's okay for some peoples taxes to go up, it's a mistake for the republican party. >> i don't want to raise taxes on anybody. i didn't come here to raise taxes or increase spending. i want to make low tax rates permanent and spending temporary. >> despite that pressure from his own party, the white house urging speaker boehner not to walk away from a potential deal. >> there is an opportunity on the table here to achieve $1.2 trillion in additional spending cuts. it seems like folly to walk away

from that opportunity because you don't want to ask somebody making $995,000 a year to pay a dime more in income taxes. it seems like terrible folly. i don't think the american people would support that. certainly the president doesn't believe that. it is a new era in the u.s. senate where patrick leahy of vermont is third in line for succession to the presidency. leahy, the longest serving democrat in the upper chamber was sworn in yesterday as president pro-tem for the senate. he succeeds senator daniel inouye of hawaii who passed away on monday. leahy is also expected to take on inouye's role as chairman of the appropriations committee. the justice department won't press cyberstalking charges against paula broadwell. federal prosecutors were investigating broadwell after she sent anonymous harassing e-mails to jill kelly, a

socialite who knew petraeus. the investigation eventually exposed petraeus's affair. broadwell was also under investigation for handling classified material. while she has been cleared of cyberstalking, justice officials will not say whether broadwell will face other charges. overseas, developing news on the situation in syria where the civil war there has killed an estimated 40,000 people since march of last year. the "new york times" is reporting that russian warships are heading to the mediterranean for what could be the early stages of an evacuation of russian citizens there. while moscow has been a supporter of bashar al assad, there are some signs that russia's confidence in the regime is slipping. news that richard engel was safely freed from syrian kidnappers is attracting a ton of attention online and relief in the nbc family. richard described his ordeal yesterday on the "today" show. >> as we were moving along the

road, the kidnappers came across a checkpoint. so we were in the back of what you would think of as a machinemachin minivan. as we were driving along, the kidnappers saw this checkpoint, started a gunfight with it. two of the kidnappers were killed. we climbed out of the vehicle, and the rebels took us. >> engel who has been reporting on the syrian conflict since it began was safely moved to turkey. as president obama prepares his second term cabinet, is he looking to find a spot for american express ceo chenault. he may replace timothy geithner in treasury department. the amex executive is a long-time ally of the president and already serves on his jobs council. to business news, after an extensive investigation by

regulators, ubs will pay a $1.5 billion fine admitting to fraud. for more on that, we go to caroline ross. i like the name, it's good. congratulations. thank you very much. >> you talked about that ubs story. that's a massive, massive fine. one of the biggest banks here in europe. yes, there have been a lot of press speculation about the side of the fine, but it's three times bigger than the fine ba barclay's was fined. ubs also admitting to criminal wro wrongdoing in japan. >> how are global markets doing at this hour? >> well, actually global markets are up. they're cheering, you know, the fact that there could be a

fiscal cliff deal between democrats and republicans. look, we've got european markets close to year highs, the cac and dax at 52-week highs. this is more related to the expected aggressive monetary easing by the boj, but even the u.s. markets, the s&p 500 at a two-month high. >> i'm curious, we never really know how the fiscal cliff conversation plays out overseas. is it something that moves the needle in the markets in europe and asia? >> absolutely it does. given that, you know, in terms of european risk, everything pretty much done and dusted. we don't have much more european event risk until the end of the year, this is what we're focusing on. every morning when we get to work, we are watching the overnight comments from mr. obama and mr. boehner. that's why european markets have been trading higher the last two

trading days because there is optimism that we will see a deal before the end of the year. as always, why are you awake at this hour? shoot us an e-mail at waytooearly@msnbc. we'll read the best responses later in the show. still ahead on "way too early," it only took 24 turnovers and 15 weeks, but jets coach rex ryan benching mark sanchez, but that doesn't mean tim tebow will start next sunday. that story and a check of weather when "way too early" comes back. >> i hereby deliver these two articles of impeachment. i love the holidays.

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take a look at that mudslide, right on to a train. that's incredible. shows you the force of -- the power of earth. yesterday a mudslide knocked the train right off the track. must have been a lot of rain there. mr. billc karins has more. >> was the guy just filming the train or did he think it was going to collapse? >> why was he in such a good position at the right time? >> was he up there with a shovel earlier in the day? >> he didn't trigger it with a couple firecrackers or something? everybody talking about this storm. >> the blizzard. >> all i care is if we'll get

snow in vermont over christmas. doesn't look like it. >> after christmas vermont could get a dose. blizzard, first one of the season moving across the central plains. today colorado and kansas. tomorrow, you do not want to be traveling in iowa or wisconsin, late in the day kansas city and chicago will get slapped on the backside of this. blizzard warnings have been issued in the central plains. not a lot of bad weather out there. travel this morning is fine. going home later today, especially in nebraska, driving out of cheyenne, wyoming, to omaha, lincoln, that's where the snow will be coming down hard. you want to get home early today before it gets dark. tonight the snow will really fly. up to a foot possible. the other side of this storm, it's such a dynamic, strong winter storm, we'll have enough warm air being pumped up from the south, we'll deal with a few tornadoes this evening in areas of arkansas.

by this time torn mornimorrow ma line of thunderstorms sliding through. a fewwinds and power outages. for the northeast, only rain thursday night into friday morning, but it will be almost 80 today in dallas, on the north side of the storm in the 20s. that's the sign that we have a big, big storm. tomorrow, chicago will go from rain to snow. again, if you have to travel, pretty much nebraska, iowa, wisconsin, get it done early today. you won't want to do it tonight or tomorrow. >> i'll have to cancel my trip from kerney to lincoln. >> nice. >> i had a job in hastings, nebraska as the number two sports guy. good thing i didn't take it. let's talk some sports. nebraska a big sports state. victor cruz, this is a heart-warming story coming out

of the tragedy in newtown. he's supporting the family of one of the children lost in the town shooting. yesterday cruz visited the home of 6-year-old jack pinto, and he idolized the giants star so much that he was buried in a replica of cruz's jersey. several elementary school children played touch football in the family's front yard. they left a few hours later with autographed giants footballs and jerseys. cruz later tweeted much love to the entire pinto family. great people with huge hearts. sorry again for your loss. locking at life through a different lens. still get choked up about this stuff. on the field news, mark sanchez is out as the jets quarterback. and it's former seventh round pick and alabama product greg mcelroy not tim tebow.

what's up with that? i want tebow time. >> call woody? >> he's on my speed dial. listen, he's getting the start against the chargers on sunday. rex ryan announcing his decision yesterday. when asked specifically about his choice to go with mcelroy over tebow, ryan responded "i would rather not look at what's behind me but look at what's in front of me. i'm going to put greg out there in my opinion, it's best for our team." sources tell espn that ryan is leaning towards naming tebow as the number two quarterback this week. so if anything happens he might get in there. sanchez who was due over $8 million in guaranteed salary next season as the next three quarterback on the depth chart, he is signed with the jets through 2016 after getting a three-year contract extension this off-season worth more than $40 million d. coming up at the top of the hour on "morning joe," the fiscal cliff negotiations and

the "morning joe" crew will break down where the talks stand today and what needs to happen to keep the economy from going over that edge. when we come back here, we'll look at how the awful news over the past few days has been turned into something positive. [ male announcer ] citi turns 200 this year. in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones.

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the events in newtown, connecticut last week have triggered all sorts of emotions, including that sense of powerlessness in the face of such an awful act. as ann curry reports, a movement is turning that feeling on its head. >> reporter: sparked by a simple idea the twitter #26acts a and #20acts are igniting a movement of kindness. people doing good deeds big and small to honor the lives lost at sandy hook elementary. >> i think the country is overwhelmed by great sadness. there's many of white houus who could do more. >> reporter: in california, kelly took her 11-year-old sonic also a shopping for toys for less fortunate kids, buying one in memory of each child who died. she's among tens of thousands of americans who are tweeting i'm in, acts of kindness, ranging from buying a stranger coffee to

leaving gift cards on peoples windshields anonymously, making it a point to reach out to lonely classmates in schools. in chicago, jake riley is working on his second act of kindness in two days. stopping on his way home from work to donate a care package he made for the homeless. >> i thought that was a good way to push back against the hate with kindness. check this one out. >> reporter: in atlanta, cindy pitts and nina are trying to collect enough teddy bears for all the children in sandy hook elementary school. >> it's been accumulating, the support from all over the community. friends from everywhere. >> reporter: at success tech academy in cleveland, teachers put up a wall of kindness. students have been adding to it so fast it's almost full. >> we were able to reach our 26 acts within the first day the wall was posted. >> reporter: the movement is now spreading overseas. russia, south africa and finland. people embracing the idea that the spirit of those lost at

sandy hook elementary endures, and that some good can come out of something even this bad. >> that was nbc's ann curry. i'm a huge fan of the concept of paying it forward, not just for newtown and just honoring them. it's easy. whoever is behind you in the coffee line, pay for their lunch. it will make you feel a lot better, too. still ahead, why are you awake? your tweets, texts and e-mails are next. "morning joe" moments away. [ woman ] ring. ring.

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